ROBOT AND ROBOT CONTROL METHOD
A robot includes a sensing circuit, a driving circuit, and a processor. The sensing circuit includes a first sensor and a second sensor. The first sensor is configured to receive a first sensing signal and the second sensor is configured to receive a second sensing signal. The driving circuit is configured to control an operation of a roller circuit and to control a forward direction of the roller circuit. The processor is coupled to the sensing circuit and the driving circuit. When the processor determines that, according to the first sensing signal and the second sensing signal, a sensing target is a bridge, the processor controls the roller circuit through the driving circuit to adjust the forward direction, such that the robot gets across the bridge.
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Taiwan Application Serial Number 108102302, filed on Jan. 21, 2019, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth below in its entirety and for all applicable purposes.
BACKGROUND Field of DisclosureThe disclosure generally relates to robot and method, and more particularly, to robot and robot control method.
Description of Related ArtSince technology development, a robot which is applied in manufacture industry and our daily life has become more and more popular. However, a robot's moving track varies based on a variety of environment. As a result, a robot confronts obstacles while a robot propels itself. A robot's task is brought to a halt.
Accordingly, how to detect obstacles of environment effectively while a robot propels itself and how to prevent from getting stuck in any situation are urgent problems to be solved.
SUMMARYThe following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects of the present disclosure, in order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated features of the disclosure, and is intended neither to identify key or critical elements of all aspects of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of any or all aspects of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
One aspect directed towards a robot includes a sensing circuit, a driving circuit, and a processor. The sensing circuit includes a first sensor and a second sensor. The first sensor is configured to receive a first sensing signal and the second sensor is configured to receive a second sensing signal. The driving circuit is configured to control an operation of a roller circuit and to control a forward direction of the roller circuit. The processor is coupled to the sensing circuit and the driving circuit. When the processor determines that, according to the first sensing signal and the second sensing signal, a sensing target is a bridge, the processor controls the roller circuit through the driving circuit to adjust the forward direction, such that the robot gets across the bridge.
One aspect directed towards a robot control method includes steps of: receiving a first sensing signal of a first sensor and a second sensing signal of a second sensor; and when a determination is made, according to the first sensing signal and the second sensing signal, that a sensing target is a bridge, controlling a driving circuit to driving a roller circuit to adjust a forward direction such that the robot gets through bridge.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are by examples, and are intended to provide further explanation of the disclosure as claimed.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
Reference is made to
The first sensor 113 and the second sensor 115 receive a first sensing signal and a second sensing signal respectively, in order to compute a distance between the robot 100 and a sensing target. In some embodiments, the first sensor 113 and the second sensor 115 are sensors which are the same type and/or have the same function. The following description takes the first sensor 113 as an example for illustrating how to compute distance among elements. The first sensor 113 and the second sensor 115 can be, but are not limited to, time-of-flight sensors (TOF). In some embodiments of computing the distance, the sensors emit light, such as infrared light, and then the IR light which is reflected from the sensing target is received. The time difference which IR light is transmitted and received can be used to compute the distance between the sensor and the sensing target. A person of ordinary skill in the art can apply other sensors or means for computing distance in the present disclosures.
As shown in
Reference is made to
Reference is made to
Reference is made to
In step S440, if the sensing target is identified as the bridge, in step S442, the controlling procedure for moving on the bridge is executed.
Reference is made to
When the robot 100 of
In step S520, the processor 120 records a first angle α between the first direction and the second direction. For example, the first angle α is a radian on a circle sensing range 160 of
In step S540, a second angle β between the first direction and the third direction is recorded. For example, the first angle β is a radian on the circle sensing range 160 of
If the determination by a result of the function (1) is YES, the flow chat goes to step S560. In step S560, the processor 120 computes a calibration angle, and controls the driving circuit 130 to adjust the forward direction of the roller circuit 140 by using the calibration angle which is computed above and the second rotating direction. In some embodiments, the calibration angle is computed by function (2):
The robot 100 rotates the calibration angle along a second rotating direction, which the second rotating direction is different from the first rotating direction. As shown in
In some embodiments, the robot 100 subtracts the first angle from the second angle to have the difference for many times, and then calculates the average of the differences to have an average of the differences. The robot 100 calculates a sum of the average of the differences and the sensing included angle (i.e., the angle δ of
On the other hand, if the determination in step S550 that the robot 100 cannot across the bridge 615, the flow chart goes back to step S510 for controlling to rotate the roller circuit 141.
In some embodiments, after step S570, the flow chart goes back to step S510 for controlling to rotate the roller circuit 141 in order to adjust the forward direction. For example, if the forward direction which has been adjusted makes the robot 100 move toward the second side 613 of the bridge 615, that is, the distance between the forward direction and the wall has not been remained a fixed distance, the flow chart goes back to the aforesaid step which adjusts the forward direction again until the forward direction of the robot 100 is approximately parallel with the pavement of the bridge 615.
Detecting the first side 611 and the second side 613 of the bridge 615 to obtain the angle or the radian in order to compute the width of the bridge 615 provides an evaluation if the robot 100 can keep moving forward or the robot 100 should rotate 180 degrees in order to prevent any obstacle. Furthermore, the calibration angle is applied to adjust the forward direction of the robot 100 for satisfying the pavement of the bridge 615, such that the robot 100 can preventing from colliding with the sides of the bridge 615. Therefore, the robot 100 moves on the bridge 615 well.
It should be noted that the robot 100 of
Reference is made again to
In step S450, after the sensing target is identified as the wall, the flow chart goes to step S452 which is the procedure of controlling the robot 100 for moving along the wall.
Reference is made to
If the determination is made that the shift direction is rotating counterclockwise and the wall locates on the left side of the robot 100, in step S740, the first speed of the first roller circuit 143 is increased and the second speed of the second roller circuit 145 is decreased. And then in step S750, the driving circuit 130 drives the first roller circuit 143 to move with the first speed which is increased and drives the second roller circuit 145 to move with the second speed which is decreased, such that the forward direction of the robot 100 is corrected for moving along the wall.
In some embodiments, function (3) is applied to compute the first speed:
which speed=k1×(dw−dmin), dw is the distance between the sensor and the wall, dmin is a safe distance between the sensor and the wall,
dt is a target distance between the sensor and the wall, which dmin<dt<f, and f is a detecting distance which is acquired by the sensor.
In some embodiments, function (4) is applied to compute the second speed:
If the determination is made that the shift direction is rotating clockwise and the wall locates on the left side of the robot 100, in step S760, the first speed of the first roller circuit 143 is decreased and the second speed of the second roller circuit 145 is increased. And then in step S770, the driving circuit 130 drives the first roller circuit 143 to move with the first speed which is decreased and drives the second roller circuit 145 to move with the second speed which is increased, such that the forward direction of the robot 100 is corrected for moving along the wall. In some embodiments, the first speed is calculated by applying function (4) and the second speed is calculated by function (3).
Reference is made to
In step S460, after the sensing target is identified as the cliff, the flow chart goes to step S462, which is the procedure of controlling the robot 100 for moving aside the cliff.
Reference is made to
On the other hand, in step S840, a determination is made that the second sensing signal has not been received for a period of time, it represents that one side of the second sensor 115 (such as the right side of the robot 100) faces the boundless space (relative to the robot 100). In this case, the first roller circuit 143 and the second roller circuit 145 are controlled to rotate an angle from the current direction to an opposite direction relative to the current direction, such that the face of the robot 100 departs from the boundless space. In step S850, a determination is made whether the second sensing signal can be received after the first roller circuit 143 and the second roller circuit 145 are controlled to rotate the angle. If the second sensing signal can be received, it represents that the face of the robot 100 has departed from the cliff. If the second sensing signal still cannot be received, it represents that the robot 100 still faces the cliff. In this case, the flow chart goes back to step S810 for departing from the cliff.
In some embodiments, if the cliff has not been detected, the robot 100 starts to move forward for a distance, such as the distance calculated from function (5):
where f′ is a length from the center point C of
As described above, the present disclosure provides the robot 100 and the robot control method for preventing from obstacles, and procedures for different types of sensing target are designed for preventing from different types of obstacles. Accordingly, the robot 100 can propel itself and prevent from getting stuck in difficult environment, furthermore the robot 100 can leave difficult environment by itself and find the best path to get across the difficult environment, and the operation property of the robot 100 is improved.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims.
Claims
1. A robot, comprising:
- a sensing circuit comprising a first sensor and a second sensor, wherein the first sensor and the second sensor are configured to receive a first sensing signal and a second sensing signal respectively;
- a driving circuit configured to control an operation of a roller circuit and a forward direction of the roller circuit; and
- a processor coupled to the sensing circuit and the driving circuit, wherein when the processor determines that, according to the first sensing signal and the second sensing signal, a sensing target is a bridge, the processor controls the roller circuit through the driving circuit to adjust the forward direction, such that the robot gets across the bridge.
2. The robot of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine, according to the first sensing signal, a first distance between the first sensor and the sensing target, and configured to determine, according to the second sensing signal, a second distance between the second sensor and the sensing target, wherein the processor is configured to determine, according to the first distance and the second distance, whether the sensing target is the bridge.
3. The robot of claim 2, wherein when the sensing target is determined to be the bridge, the processor is further configured to:
- control the driving circuit to drive the roller circuit to rotate from a first direction to a second direction, and record a first angle between the first direction and the second direction, wherein the first sensor detects a first side of the bridge in the second direction;
- control the driving circuit to drive the roller circuit to rotate from the second direction to a third direction, and record a second angle between the first direction and the third direction, wherein the first sensor detects a second side of the bridge in the third direction;
- compute a calibration angle according to the first angle and the second angle, wherein the second angle is larger than the first angle; and
- control the driving circuit to adjust the forward direction of the roller circuit by the calibration angle.
4. The robot of claim 1, wherein when the processor determines that a pavement width of the bridge is larger than a width of a housing of the robot, the processor controls the driving circuit to drive the roller circuit to get through the bridge.
5. The robot of claim 3, further comprising a housing, wherein the housing is configured to accommodate the sensing circuit, wherein a sensing included angle is between a center of the housing and a sensing direction of the sensing circuit, and the processor is further configured to compute an average difference of the second angle and the first angle, and configured to obtain the calibration angle by computing a sum of the average difference and the sensing included angle.
6. The robot of claim 2, wherein the processor identifies that the sensing target is the bridge when the processor makes one of following determinations:
- the first distance being smaller than a first threshold, and the second distance being larger than a second threshold;
- the first distance being larger than the second threshold, and the second distance being smaller than the first threshold;
- the first distance and the second distance being smaller than first threshold; and
- the second distance and the second distance being larger than the second threshold;
- wherein the second threshold is larger than the first threshold.
7. The robot of claim 1, wherein the roller circuit comprises a first roller circuit and a second roller circuit, wherein the processor is further configured to:
- read a moving speed of the first roller circuit as a first speed and read a moving speed of the second roller circuit as a second speed in response to making a determination that the sensing target is identified as a wall according to the first sensing signal and the second sensing signal;
- compute a speed difference between the first speed and the second speed in order to compute a displacement angle of the forward direction before and after the first roller circuit and the second roller circuit move; and
- adjust a speed of the first roller circuit and a speed of the second roller circuit according to the displacement angle.
8. The robot of claim 7, wherein when the processor adjusts the speed of the first roller circuit and the speed of the second roller circuit, the processor is further configured to:
- increase the first speed of the first roller circuit and decrease the second speed of the second roller circuit in response to determining that the wall locates on a left side of the first sensor and a first rotating direction is counterclockwise; and
- control the driving circuit to drive the first roller circuit to move in the first rotating direction with the first speed which is increased, and to drive the second roller circuit to move in a second rotating direction with the second speed which is decreased.
9. The robot of claim 7, wherein when the processor determines that the forward direction does not keep a fixed distance from the wall, the processor is further configured to:
- decrease the first speed of the first roller circuit and increase the second speed of the second roller circuit when the wall locates on a left side of the first sensor and a first rotating direction is clockwise; and
- control the driving circuit to drive the first roller circuit to move in the first rotating direction with the first speed which is decreased, and control the second roller circuit to move in a second rotating direction with the second speed which is increased.
10. The robot of claim 1, wherein the roller circuit comprises a first roller circuit and a second roller circuit, and the processor is further configured to identify that the sensing target is a cliff when the first sensor does not received the first sensing signal or the second sensor does not received the second sensing signal.
11. A robot control method, comprising:
- receiving a first sensing signal of a first sensor and a second sensing signal of a second sensor; and
- when a determination is made, according to the first sensing signal and the second sensing signal, that a sensing target is a bridge, controlling a driving circuit to driving a roller circuit to adjust a forward direction such that the robot gets through bridge.
12. The robot control method of claim 11, further comprising:
- determining, according to the first sensing signal, a first distance between the first sensor and the sensing target;
- determining, according to the second sensing signal, a second distance between the second sensor and the sensing target; and
- determining, according to the first distance and the second distance, whether the sensing target is the bridge.
13. The robot control method of claim 12, further comprising:
- when the sensing target is determined to be the bridge, controlling the driving circuit to control the roller circuit to rotate from a first direction to a second direction, and recording a first angle between the first direction and the second direction, wherein the first sensor detects a first side of the bridge in the second direction;
- controlling the driving circuit to drive the roller circuit to rotate from the second direction to a third direction, and recording a second angle between the first direction and the third direction, wherein the first sensor detects a second side of the bridge in the third direction;
- computing a calibration angle according to the first angle and the second angle, wherein the second angle is larger than the first angle; and
- controlling the driving circuit to adjust the forward direction of the roller circuit by the calibration angle.
14. The robot control method of claim 11, further comprising:
- when a determination is made that a pavement width of the bridge is larger than a width of a housing of the robot, controlling the driving circuit to drive the roller circuit to get through the bridge.
15. The robot control method of claim 13, further comprising:
- computing an average difference of the second angle and the first angle, and obtaining the calibration angle by computing a sum of the average difference and a sensing included angle, wherein the sensing included angle is between a center of a housing and a sensing direction of a sensing circuit.
16. The robot control method of claim 13, wherein the sensing target is identified to be the bridge when one of following determinations is made:
- the first distance being smaller than a first threshold and the second distance is larger than a second threshold;
- the first distance being larger than the second threshold and the second distance is smaller than the first threshold;
- the first distance and the second distance being smaller than first threshold; and
- the second distance and the second distance being larger than the second threshold;
- wherein the second threshold is larger than the first threshold.
17. The robot control method of claim 11, further comprising:
- reading a moving speed of a first roller circuit as a first speed and reading a moving speed of a second roller circuit as a second speed in response to making a determination that the sensing target is identified as a wall according to the first sensing signal and the second sensing signal;
- computing a speed difference between the first speed and the second speed in order to compute a displacement angle of the forward direction before and after the first roller circuit and the second roller circuit move; and
- adjusting a speed of the first roller circuit and a speed of the second roller circuit according to the displacement angle.
18. The robot control method of claim 17, wherein step of adjusting the speed of the first roller circuit and the speed of the second roller circuit further comprising:
- increasing the first speed of the first roller circuit and decreasing the second speed of the second roller circuit in response to determining that the wall locates on a left side of the first sensor and a first rotating direction is counterclockwise; and
- controlling the driving circuit to drive the first roller circuit to move in the first rotating direction with the first speed which is increased and to drive the second roller circuit to move in a second rotating direction with the second speed which is decreased.
19. The robot control method of claim 17, wherein step that the forward direction does not keep a fixed distance from the wall further comprising:
- decreasing the first speed of the first roller circuit and increasing the second speed of the second roller circuit when the wall locates on a left side of the first sensor and a first rotating direction is clockwise; and
- controlling the driving circuit to drive the first roller circuit to move in the first rotating direction with the first speed which is decreased and controlling the second roller circuit to move in a second rotating direction with the second speed which is increased.
20. The robot control method of claim 11, further comprising:
- identifying that the sensing target is a cliff when the first sensor does not received the first sensing signal or the second sensor does not received the second sensing signal.
Type: Application
Filed: Jan 12, 2020
Publication Date: Jul 23, 2020
Patent Grant number: 11305435
Inventors: Kao-Min LIN (New Taipei City), Yu-Ruei LI (New Taipei City)
Application Number: 16/740,481